Harrison White
Stronghold Trustee has received regulatory approval to operate its trust business in the Kingdom of Cambodia. The company was one of the first six firms in Cambodia to receive a trust license after meeting strict regulatory guidelines. The announcement was made during the “Trust Forum 2023” held recently in Phnom Penh.
Cambodia’s rapidly growing economy has been attracting many investors who seek to invest in fiscal or financial assets. However, the safety of their investment is always the top priority before making any decisions. To address this concern, Stronghold Trustee was established to provide trust solutions that comply with the new Trust law in Cambodia.
“Our founder and shareholders have seen many trust issues in the past ten years. Some of them even experienced the situation themselves. It hurts investors’ faith if the investment cannot get protection under the law,” said Han-En “Hans” Chen, General Manager at Stronghold Trustee.
Read more: Cambodia’s Trust Regulator Awards Inaugural Trust Licenses to Six Firms
The company’s name, STRONGHOLD, reflects its goal to become a financial stronghold for everyone in the country. “We will keep working with the Trust regulator and SERC to create a safer investing environment,” added Hans.
Advancement of Cambodia’s trust sector
Sok Dara, the Trust Regulator’s Director General, said that the advancement of the trust sector is a new chapter for development in Cambodia and has attracted a lot of attention from the private sector. “The trust sector has played a crucial role in contributing to and driving inflows of investment in all sectors of the economy,” he added at the Trust Forum.
According to a report from the Trust Regulator, as of February 2023, 492 trusts were registered in Cambodia with a total investment fund of $735 million. Commercial trusts accounted for the majority of registrations, with 475 trusts and a total investment fund of $492 million, or 66 percent of all registrations.
Stronghold Trustee has marked plans to introduce a unique trust product in the Trust market in Cambodia. “There are hundreds of thousands of ex-pats working and living in Cambodia. But financial protection is not enough when some extreme situation happens. As a foreigner myself, I can buy insurance to protect myself. But it’s hard to protect my investment well at one time. We are designing a structure that allows us to safeguard all the assets and obey the trust law at the same time,” said Hans.
More investors using the legal facility
The Trust Regulator governs the establishment, registration, management, and control of four types of trusts in Cambodia: Commercial Trust, Public Trust, Social Trust, and Individual Trust. The law contains comprehensive regulations and rules to govern the rights, duties, and responsibilities of the trustor, trustee, and beneficiary, providing a comprehensive understanding of each type of trust and its purpose.
“We have been working hard on educating our clients, providing training sessions to our partners, and doing presentations in different places as more as we can to promote the trust sector. So far, the result is quite good, and we are happy and excited to see this and the potential growth of Cambodia,” said Hans, emphasizing the importance of promoting the trust sector.
Looking to the future, Hans said, “Cambodia is a developing country with many favorable factors attractive to overseas investors. However, it is not enough to rely on just domestic resources. We need capital, technologies, and skills from various countries to enhance the development of Cambodia. With the completion of the Trust system, we believe that more and more investors will come to invest in Cambodia using this legal facility.”
